I today praised the Emergency Food and Shelter National Board Program’s (ESFP) announcement that from the $30 million made available in the border supplemental appropriations bill for direct reimbursements to local governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) for migrant care, $25 million will be allocated to border states like Texas. This is especially important for Texas since two-thirds of all Border Patrol apprehensions in the first half of Fiscal Year 2019 have occurred in the El Paso, Del Rio, and Rio Grande Valley Sectors. The full ESFP guidelines can be found here.

There’s no question border states like Texas have borne the brunt of our current immigration crisis, and it only makes sense to target federal resources where they’re needed most. Texans have gone above and beyond in assisting migrants in need of food and shelter, and it’s high time the federal government repays the Texas communities that have diverted their local taxpayer funds to address this crisis at the expense of their usual operations.

I led the effort in the Senate to obtain these funds, urging Senate appropriators to include these reimbursement funds in the border supplemental appropriations bill after hearing from many local Texas officials and non-profits that had spent significant resources on migrant care due to increased border crossings in recent months.